Photo by Zan van AlderwegenWith a new year, it's time to clear out the digital clutter and make way for some new lines for inspiration. First on the list: Architecture in Development. After nurturing a passionate online community for a number of years, the founders of the site hope...

Architects Antonio Girardi and Cristiana Favretto of StudioMobile in Treviso, Italy, have created what has been dubbed a "floating agricultural greenhouse" that produces food, almost miraculously, without consuming land, fresh water or energy.Built with simple technologies and with low cost and recycled materials, the "Jellyfish Barge" has been conceived for...

When I write about projects and people that I find interesting, I often wonder "Why the heck don't more people know about these projects/people?" You can say that I see it as my duty to spread the word, to inform people about the things going on out there, and make...

It's interesting how things sometimes end up in your lap—in this case, it was a bag belonging to a friend of a friend that ended up on my kitchen table, and things developed from there. Those of you who already have read a few of my interviews from this interview...

Founded by Ian Hall, Arkitrek works to the create socially and environmentally sustainable buildings in Malaysia. I have been following them for several years now, just looking for a reason to contact them other than to just say "Hi! I like what you do. Keep up the good work," and...

Open Air Neighborhood (OAN) started off as a collaboration between KaosPilot Theis Reibke and architect Louise Heeboell, back in 2011. At first, the idea was simply to develop "Building Playgrounds" through co-creative processes with the users, as a way to develop the city itself. They applied for and received grants...

When it comes to recycling, pee and poo oughtn't mix. We think of them as the same thing—human waste—but in fact they are not mixed within the body and shouldn't be mixed afterwards, though we often do so out of convenience and the design of modern toilets.The reason they shouldn't...

Cansu Akarsu is one of those people who you can't help but notice when she enters a room: Her bubbly and positive energy more than makes up for her small stature. I met her during the INDEX: Design Awards a few years back, and have had the great pleasure of...

In 2007, a student at the University of Tokyo brought a lump of a grey, sparkly mineral to his professor Tsutomu Miyasaka, with the hope that this material might have potential to make cheap and efficient solar cells. But it only converted 4 percent of the sun energy to electricity....

Coffee drinkers: How many disposable coffee cups do you go through a year? Some of you might carry a travel mug on your commute, but the bulk of you probably get your caffeine hits out of paper or plastic cups, which then go into the trash or recycling. Ben Melinger,...

There are at least two items in my apartment that I can count on including in my will someday and I'd bet the same goes for most people if they take a stock of their most prized possessions. Alien & Monkey express the opposite sentiment with a handful of their...

For big problems, I'm a big fan of big solutions. After all, the sheer scale of systemic issues all but demands concerted efforts when it comes to fixing them. Even so, we can build in small developments that distribute the burden of change over a wider area. In the case...

About one year ago, I was giving a talk to students who were about to graduate from the various design schools in Copenhagen. After I finished, I leaned back in a chair located rather close to the door (and close to the drinks and snack section...) when I caught myself...

There's no doubt that we're much more likely to Google a question than grab the nearest encyclopedia (let's be real—there are a fine few who even own one nowadays) and thumb through its pages until we find the answer we're looking for. The Internet has given us a relatively anonymous...

Food scraps are hard things to come to terms with. It doesn't seem sensible to toss them to the mercy of the landfill and composting is a (sometimes smelly) commitment. Japanese designers Kurasuhito Kurasutokoro and Yusuke Komatsu have created a golden option for those unsightly food throw-aways: Cut Piece. Using...

CYQL's exhibit set-up at last weekend's WantedDesign Launchpad showcase // Photo by Alex WelshAll it took was a fashion show, a particularly inspiring Halloween and a little bit of stolen style from a Greek goddess. Sophie Hones—CYQL designer and DesignLaboratoire owner—had her first go-around repurposing bicycle inner tubes while crafting...

Had the Industrial Revolution never happened, there'd still be doctors, lawyers, farmers and merchants—but there darn sure wouldn't be any industrial designers. It's a bit of a shame that the event that enabled our very profession caused such widespread pollution, but we didn't understand the environmental effects back then, and...

A few years ago, I saw a picture of a desk that captured my eye. I can't remember exactly where I saw it—perhaps it was this very blog—I just remember not being able to stop thinking about it. I searched the Internet to find out who had created this lovely...

In this three-part mini-series, Stefanie Koehler shares her experiences in bringing a sustainability focus into her work.Part 1: A New Way of Thinking
· Part 2: Putting Theory into Practice
· Part 3: Learning from NatureDuring the 2012–13 Biomimicry Student Design Challenge (BSDC) competition, I discovered that solving humanity's biggest design challenges...

In this three-part mini-series, Stefanie Koehler shares her experiences in bringing a sustainability focus into her work.Part 1: A New Way of Thinking
· Part 2: Putting Theory into Practice · Part 3: Learning from NaturePracticing sustainability-focused design, like any art form, is a skill that requires craft and sensitivity. As...

In this three-part mini-series, Stefanie Koehler shares her experiences in bringing a sustainability focus into her work.Part 1: A New Way of Thinking
· Part 2: Putting Theory into Practice
· Part 3: Learning from NatureWe all know the plight of the typical industrial designer: make (more) stuff; repeat. But with the...

Update: An earlier version of this story misreported that the structure works like a cooling tower.The Museum of Modern Art and MoMA PS1 are pleased to announce the winner of this year's Young Architects Program (YAP), an annual call for proposals for a temporary outdoor installation for the converted schoolyard...

A few years ago, I became slightly obsessed with embodied energy, which led to a new perspective on both materials and design, in the form of a self-initiated experiment and ultimately a design tool. I wanted to share some of my thoughts from this process to try and pass on...

Halfway through its second year, Minneapolis College of Art & Design (MCAD)'s Master of Arts in Sustainable Design program continues to represent the leading edge of advanced design studies. This year, four companies—Cascade Designs, Hamilton Beach, Anthro and Rayne Longboards—all had their products analyzed and brainstormed for sustainable redesign. ...

Since the dawn of time, high fashion has recycled low... and congratulated itself for doing so. Antique Japanese boro fabric, increasingly popular among the edgy styluminati, is simultaneously co-branded couture, lowbrow folk tradition, and literally recycled. Boro traces its lineage to the traditional cloths used and reused and re-reused by...

In design school in the '90s, they taught us that products about to become obsolete change their form factor to imitate their successors shortly before dying out. In other words, the lesson went, landline telephones would start to look like cell phones in a desperate attempt to stay relevant, and...

One of last year's entries to make the 2013 roundup was this piano that was converted into a workbench. Any time you've got 300-plus pounds of antique quarter-sawn oak sitting around, it is of course better to recycle it into something useful, even if the music-generating parts no longer work;...

While landfill is generating electricity for their Fort Wayne and Orion plants, General Motors has a very different plan for their massive Renaissance Center office complex in Detroit: Stop adding to landfill altogether. To give you an idea of what a massive undertaking this is, the GM Renaissance Center is...

General Motors has quietly been making strides in greening their operations. What's most encouraging is that GM isn't doing it for the publicity; they're doing it simply because technological advances in sustainability are increasingly making good business sense.In 1999, GM began experimenting with turning landfill gas—those otherwise worthless fumes that...

When USB flash drives first came out, they were useful, expensive and valued things. Nowadays they're still useful, but I've got a drawer full of them, as every press conference I attend passes them out like candy. Most are made of plastic, some of metal. As they continue to proliferate,...

Today is Thanksgiving here in the U.S., when we all give thanks that the heavens have provided us with the Kardashians, a bitterly bifurcated government and wildly diverging views on firearms. We celebrate these things by cooking lots of food, most of it in ovens. But if more of us...